Alex Ovechkin gives his jacket to an Edmonton homeless man

For your feel good story of the day, I present to you a tale of Alex Ovechkin doing a kind thing for a homeless man in our city. Yesterday afternoon, The Sequel Cafe tweeted out that they saw Ovie giving his coat and hat to a homeless man in downtown Edmonton.

We saw The Alex Ovechkin take off his winter jacket and hat and give it to a homeless man he passed on the street. Wow! #gooddeeds

The story had already started making the rounds on Twitter but no one could really confirm it, despite the fact that this is the kind of good deed that we all want to believe. That’s when Ovechkin’s wife, Nastasiya Ovechkina, proved the story to be true with a screen-captured post of her text messages with Alex that she threw on Instagram ( a post she’s since removed).

Alex Ovechkin: “Sweetie, I just bought a bum a hat, sweater, and a warm coat.”

Nastya Ovechkina: “A bum?”

Alex Ovechkin: “Yeah, it’s really cold here. And he didn’t have any clothing. I felt really sorry for him.”

Nastya Ovechkina: “Good job.”

I hope she didn’t pull the screen cap down because the Internet white knights get mad if you call a homeless guy a “bum” (we got some of that on Facebook for this story) because the point if this story is that Alex Ovechkin saw an opportunity to help someone and he did exactly that. That’s a good dude regardless of slang/potential translation issues. How many rich folk roll through town without doing anything? A lot, and that’s the point here.

It goes without saying that Edmonton can get freezing and this gesture is something that could keep that man alive through the hellscape we call winter. Having what I would guess is a very nice jacket will keep that man warmer than he would have been otherwise and that’s the story here. For a guy with a $100 million contract in his pocket, donating a hat and jacket to someone less fortunate may not be a big deal for his wallet but it is certainly huge for the recipient.

In the “good old days”, when Ralph Klein was in charge, the homeless were given one way bus passes to the Lower Mainland BC, where they could live outside all year round without having to endure Edmonton’s long cold winter.

Definitely had nothing to do with Ralph shoveling off his duty to the disenfranchised over to B.C. (Didn’t he famously (and drunkenly) tell homeless people in Alberta to “just get a job?” Good ol’ days, indeed…)

I’d like to point out the the idea that his wife took down the post out of fear of internet “white knights” was baseless speculation on the part of bagged milk. It’s just as likely that Ovi wanted to remain anonymous because he prefers his acts of charity to be private. Or Perhaps he is a Christian who would rather build up a storehouse in heaven than recieve accolades on earth.

This is a great story. The sad part isn’t that the pc police are throwing a blanket on it. The sad part is that a good ON blogger is introjecting political slant to an apolitical story.

Thanks for clarifying, I’m enough of a “white knight” to be offended by the use of “white” as a signifier of goodness or purity… but even I wouldn’t light ovi up over that language useage. I hope my overly zealous pc police friends will chill and we can all realize that Ovi was being the type of decent role model we want out athletes to be.

I guess I was just surprised that the “bum” part of this story was the story for some people and not the fact that Ovechkin did something incredibly generous. Admittedly, I was annoyed by the shift in narrative and that’s my bad for the lack of context/conjecture.

I remember a time when a young Ovechkin and crew were seen pawning/bartering their World Junior official Team Russia leather jackets in Halifax to people at the end of the tournament to bring home some good warm jackets to people who needed them in Russia.

Easy to hate “the other side” of sports, but hockey players are good people for the most part.

It is nice to hear of human compassion.Good on you Ovechkin .I hope Ovechkin gets a hat trick tonight and everyone throws their hats on the ice. So they can be given to the homeless as well. The Oilers will win 4-3 of course.

I’m not gonna be one of those guys (PC) and only focus on a word or comment he might have made but the action and total character of this man.
He didn’t have to do this but felt the need and that’s what matters.
Cheers to you Sir.

Tonight boys, when he steps on the ice, we cheer loud and proud of this man.